https://chrisoncars.com/yugo-victim-or-victimizer/: (Time Magazine said it best: The Yugo has the distinct feeling of something assembled at gunpoint), I found quite a few articles from later years, quoting the same sentence over and over again (https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/the-story-of-the-yugo-the-worst-car-in-the-world, https://www.ocregister.com/2017/01/03/the-best-worst-cars-ever/ , https://blastmagazine.com/2014/05/13/truth-10-cars-never-hit-road/), And there you have it: everybody knows for fact that Yugo was actually assembled at gunpoint. The film also stars Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Affleck, William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, and Peter Dobson. Yupand does anyone think Fiat or Yugo engineers thought to make the engine a clearance design? Here, it is well known that you change the timing belt every 40K miles. Chief Wyatt Rash: My mother always used to say, "When life hands you potatoes, make potato salad!". In the small, white-trash town of Verplanck, N.Y., a loathsome woman named Mona Dearly (a dour and ugly Bette Midler) drives her car over a cliff and into the river. Honestly, I think Zastava should be commended for the amount of engineering they were able to do independently, modifying and developing Fiat cars. They were not standing still, by any means. Later I also replaced steering rack under warranty because of some slack inside. @ahight: I think there is no need to put the location square in every screenshot, only the ones with more than a single car visible. Mona Dearly: Yeah? The first year all those repairs were paid for, so it wasnt as miserable then. The Yugo was not always viewed so favorably, although its $3,990 price ($9,900 in today's dollars) grabbed headlines on its introduction in 1985. They did not have such a bad reputation,at least not as bad as the rear engined Skodas But what about quality disasters in a different scenario?. Its not too late! setTimeout(waitGEO, 200); But even before then, Subarus had features that endeared them to snow-belt climates, like dual radiators that got the car to warm up quickly. Yes, even a Saturn will rust in Detroit, but in less harsh climes, Yugos tend to last well. Substandard seatbelt anchors, collapsing seats, hard starting, no starting, the list was endless. I cant recall reading anything positive about the vehicle, anywhere. I would love to find one of those. Bowfinger - The main character produced a documentary called The Yugo Story. Reviewed in . What I know is that people explain such quality failures as Zastavas being due to a different culture in worker managed firms, etc. Americans are a funny lot.I am not sure what $4000 in 2016 money equates to but you can these days get plenty on the used car lot if you look carefully for roughly the same money as anything in the light car class or it can be can be a car you dreamed about when it was new but couldnt afford at the time.We Australians never saw the Yugo but $12,000 before you factor in things like automatics and on roads plus good condition gets you better than most of these cars from foreign lands and brands which dont exist anymore.I suppose the modern day equivalent of this would be something like a Suzuki Celerio or a Mitsubishi Mirage in my part of the world new,used equivalent buying gets you a three year old Corolla or Pulsar or one size smaller a well kept Yaris or Mazda 2. What kind of car is in the movie Drowning Mona? In the 70s when I lived in Boston, I worked with a guy whose 5-year-old Pinto had big holes in the doors. Every vehicle in town that is not a truck is a Yugo, except the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons. That said, the most maintenance I did on the car(s) were oil changes and other mundane regular maintenance. the building is used several times a month for exclusive private hip-hop dance parties. Now they are all scared by digital cameras and this are just some memories from the other side of the iron curtain. I also have to say that state ownership does not always lead to poor business. I saw this movie. He sat in the front seat once and never again! i find it interesting that visionary vehicles still lists 172 duane st. in tribeca as their headquarters. I drove it in Atlanta rush hour traffic, it got about 40MPG and I grew to really like the little beast. I remember that time very well, it was impossible to find coffee or bananas or laundry detergent etc in the stores, and the industry was struggling to get raw materials. I guess I should note that I owned the cars 20+ years ago, I was a lot more enthusiastic about getting underneath the car for just about any reason. Modern kei cars are dimensionally similar to the old sidevalve english Fords tall and narrow hopefully they dont fall over as easily I see lots of elderly people driving used import keis here. Of course not. I was amazed when I rode in one, expecting a bouncy distaster but encountering a surprisingly supple feel of the suspension. Bracket racing, of course. Zastava built some world class arms. As the movie opens, a local woman named Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) speeds down a country road and directly into the Hudson River when her brakes fail. *cough cough*, Malcolm is now wanting to import Chinese cars. Tye Mobile Homes in Tye, Texas using the incentive of Buy a mobile home at Tye Mobile Homes, get a new Yugo for $1. No joke. But with enough TLC (something the average American consumer wasnt high on), maybe they werent so bad (at least a few of them, anyway). 5.0 out of 5 stars Drowning Mona music CD. They probably would have found a customer base in the U.S. He was absolutely correct. I recall seeing the garage full of yugos being worked on when Id take mine in and I recall seeing them dead on the side of the road everywhere. I spotted the ones in the picture while out on a bike ride a few years ago. Sales quickly slowed when word of the myriad problems began to circulate in the media. Both were sold for more than I paid. Well, as they say, two out of three aint bad. It broke down like a Yugo. Yugoslavia, markets in new states opened for foreign cars and some of my friends bought American cars lured by size and luxury, but this love affairs usually ended quickly and costly. Its so interesting to think of how things couldve been different if the country survived Communisms collapse in one peace. Whats good- quad headlights The man is Malcom Bricklin. Barnum and the circus freak show that he brought to America in the twilight of the Reagan years. Fuji was pretty well aware that the car wasnt suitable for America circa 1969. In the moviedrowning MonaI remember there was among the many regular Yugos one that had four doors (a black one).Was it . Actually, the GM B body starting in 1977 was very, very resistant to corrosion. Witness the fact that everyone's car of choice is a Yugo; each Verplanck citizen drives one ever since the company conducted a cheap sales test of the vehicle there some 10 years ago. Thank you for the interesting history. Drowning Mona 2000 (PG-13)Strident comedy about the low-IQ denizens of small town Verplanck, New York, where everybody still drives a Yugo (the town was a test market). I know there were folks who collected Yugos for nothing, for running and parts cars. The car was a modest success with just under 8000 sold in the first year, but when the 360 was pilloried by Consumer Reports as being unacceptable because of its numerous safety issues, the bottom dropped out of the venture and the last few cars sat on dealers lots for years before they were practically given away. There was a cheap-o daily rental car company that had a fleet of them, and they were in the process of changing out the Yugos for Hyundai Precis. After the death of Marshal Tito in 1980, long simmering Balkan feuds became a way of life and continue there to this day. One reason is that lots of people own and drive them and parts are a breeze. Nasty Mona Dearly (Midler) drives her car into the Hudson River and drowns. Nevermind that their cars are horribly unreliable, people still buy them. how did Subaru make the transition from dangerous sardine can to granola FWD/AWD family compact in the US?. Drowning Mona 2000 PG-13 1 h 36 m IMDb RATING 5.7 /10 15K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:23 1 Video 67 Photos Comedy Crime Mystery When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. So on the line, a worker would have to cut and install and tape it, with about a 25 percent failure rateincorrectly re-connected. He lost his house, his fortuneAnd the dozens of Yugo GVs that he received as part of his settlement with his bankers. Parts were cheap due to the exchange rate, so there was not the pressure on dealers to deny problems and warranty claims, like Ford and Vauxhall put on their dealers. After Mona Dearly (Bette Milder) dies in the movie's opening moments when her Yugo plows through a guardrail and into the Hudson River far below, Wyatt begins investigating her death. But there was one area that, frankly, I was impressed with, and that was the basic two-box design. At our Year 2000 track day at Lime Rock, one of the entries was a race-prepared Yugo. readyGEO = true; I have only seen one Yugo in my life. As played in flashbacks by Midler, Mona is a ferocious harridan who may have hacked off her own son's hand just because he was trying to snatch her beer. The Florida was reviewed very positively in the UK against western cars, and sadly only failed here because of the rise of Fascism in Yugoslavia, and its aftermath.. Holy mackerel, Goe, what a story and experience! Once I figured out what was happening to the carb, I developed an oil trap that kept motor oil from getting past the PC valve and being sucked into the carb. Im pretty sure that she kept her clothes on. I wonder if he actually carried that threat out, and if his daughter ever forgave him if he did. The accident I referenced in my earlier post has adversely affected my overall health (lumbar damage), and Im nowhere near as ready to slide under a car as I used to be. Dan beat me to it. To say that the 360 was unsuited to American driving norms is to wildly overpraise the car. The 71-76 GM full-sizers were better than average on this count. if (window['UnicI'].geo === 'CA') { Yugoslavia was in the state of bankruptcy at that time, import of all goods and raw materials was practically halted. No regrets and better than any $1500 alternatives at the time. Your email address will not be published. However, these engines have been known to go 200K with little bearing wear if maintained appropriately. The Bricklin SV-1 was remembered for several interesting features: lurid (safety) colors , no cigarette lighter (Bricklin was a rabid non-smoker) , and most importantly, the ability to vacuum piles of money from the gullible government of New Brunswick, Canada. A few things come to mind regarding the Yugo / Zastava Koral (and larger Yugo / Zastava Skala), mainly that it is a pity it never received similar developments such as 5-door hatchback, 2/4-door saloon and 3/5-door estate bodystyles as found on other Fiat 127-based variants like the SEAT 127 / SEAT Frua and Fiat 147 / Fiat Oggi / Fiat Panorama, along with larger 1372-1596cc+ versions of the Fiat SOHC engine. Casey Affleck wore a blonde wig for this film. We learn that Verplanck was selected as a test market when the Yugo was being introduced to the United States. Even so, Kei cars remain too small to be accepted by American consumers. My mother drove it to work at the high school one time. (not the 1st time Ive done this,haha). I was scarred for her to be driving it. Actually, from my experience with Yugo monocoque, four doors would have crushing effect on rigidity:). He was a statistician in the War Department who became interested in using statistical controls to produce higher-quality manufactured goods. It really has all of the benefits of an Italian car with none of the drawbacks. Mine was an 86 and a half Yugo. For the rest of the scene, he is dry from the waist up. I wonder why they used the Yugos, To show the towns Quirkyness? Finallywith a new clutch 400 miles oldit tossed the alternator belt. Had Bricklin been a true industrialist instead of a con-man, the winning idea might have been to buy out the Yugo tooling (Zastava was setting up for the Florida at the time, they might have been open to this) and moved the whole plant to a place where workmen were conscientious and quality control accepted. Even on foot. Only with the threat of armed intervention by Nato and the UN is an uneasy peace maintained. Its a Plymouth Horizon which,I guess,is the same as a Talbot Horizon. (As you said JustPassinThru). Same thing was sold in the US as the Precis. One time the keys were out and the car was still on and would not turn off. After 330,000km with two Yugos, I must be destined to eternal vacation on BOra-Bora . As I understand it, Zastiva had the Yugo designed that way as its plan was, from the beginning, to export the car. I cant imagine that anybody that test drove one like mine actually laid down real money for one. A "Fetzer valve" is a fictional part of an engine, introduced in the movie Fletch (1985). Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell are both known as "Final Girls" or "Scream Queens", playing recurring heroines in their respective horror franchise films: Curtis in the "Halloween" franchise and Campbell in the "Scream" franchise--which is loosely based on the "Halloween" mythos. Did it even come close? You are right.I found it here: An automatic wouldnt fit in the Yugo engine bay, so the only thing shiftless about the Yugo would be the Zastava workers that routinely drank on the job. } My little red Yugo was dead. But then my wife (of all people) found a Yugo for $800. Damn that X1/9 still looks beautiful just like mine the 81 behind the new Abarth. We had these in the U.K, I dont remember them being particularly bad, the main criticism was that it was seen as too expensive for what was clearly an Eastern European rehash of a cast off western design. After we meet the local residents, we understand why they're driving them now: They can't afford to replace them. I recall taking my younger brother out to teach him how to drive. To keep your hands warm while you pushed. The battery required water to be poured into it. A quiet little in-joke indeed, but I mention it so the filmmakers will know their work was not in vain. Sloppy or ignorant engineering plays a part most times; but its MANAGEMENT thats supposed to identify problems and stop them as soon as possible. The displacement limit for kei cars was increased to 550cc some years ago. (Italy) 1989 Chrysler TC 1983 Dodge Omni 1991 Dodge Ram 1980 Ford F - 350 Ford Ranger 1993 Ford Ranger GMC C / K - Series 1992 Honda Civic The base GV had a 1.1L, SOHC motor that originated in the Fiat 128 and the GVX had the 1.3L\, SOHC, motor, also from the Fiat 128 and I think it had the 5spd manual in it but the base GV got the 4spd manual. 1987 brought about several other trims, the GVL, GVS, GVC,which were very similar other than the door panels and seat upholstery. Several actors in this film have ties to the Batman films. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. i live down the block. Just like the Russian Lada its simple and DIY friendly as long as you relise that and dont expect a Lexus. The Mopar fuselage cars were not too bad, but the 71 on up B bodies were not so good. It failed, of all places, on the Bonneville salt flats area in Utah. Why did so many Fiat designs get recycled and built behind the Iron Curtain? Having had some up-close contact with a 128, Id say that its more 128 than 127. The collapse of Communism removed any perceived legitimacy left in the public who thought their future under capitalism would reflect a standard of living like W Germanys. Not a bit ! DROWNING MONA 1/2 Tasteless but sporadically uproarious black comedy. By third world standards, the Yugo was not a terribly bad car and sales continued even after its mother country began breaking up in the early 90s. It's got an absolute star studded cast including Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Casey Affleck, William Fitchner, Neve Campbell, Jaime Lee Curtis, with a cameo, and even . There was a short in the headlights, and the switch for the engine cooling fan was broken both of which were easily fixed. During the time the clutch cable was dying, I broke the shifter mechanism, due to the clutch cable dying. Nuff said? The philosophy behind Drowning Mona is not good clean fun, or even intelligent nasty fun. Actually, Yugos timing belt is ~10$, and pretty easy to change. One day I put the key in and nothing happened, it was dead and wouldnt turn on. I bought it in January because I figured it would be fun to see just how bad it could be. FSO 125P: parts are easy, I have a new driver side indoor handle ordered that will be here Tuesday. (rolls eyes). . I see one maybe twice a year. Its a tough call on the Yugo. The Tipo 145 was developed in the early 1970s (IIRC), and it showed. 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